This invention relates to a device in the nature of a small electronic calculator which can be hand carried by a coach or can be worn on the wrist of a player, and which is used to record won and lost game points, while at the same time providing a continuously visible readout showing categories representing multiple types of shots that have resulted in winning and losing points, and showing the number of shots entered in each shot category.
A player participating in a highly competitive match, such as racquetball, tennis, etc., in order to improve his or her play, needs to be provided with an analysis that will indicate the player's own strengths and weaknesses when faced with a certain opponent, and also strengths and weaknesses displayed by that opponent. This is true not only during the match, but is also true after the match has concluded so that the player can be informed of areas of play requiring special concentration and practice in order to improve skills for subsequent matches. A scoring and analyzing device capable of providing such information can be either worn by the player and incremented after each point is won or lost, or it can be used by a third person coaching the player and serving during subsequent analyzing of both players' performances. When worn and incremented by the player during the match, the device must be easy to use, and must provide continuous displays of all of the recorded categories in order to be of any practical assistance to the player during the match.
No such device is available at the present time, although many scoring devices have been patented.
The only disclosure of a game scoring device known at the time of this writing which seeks to analyze the players' performances shot-wise is U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,992 to Blood et al, which shows a golf scoring device which the inventor recognises could be adapted for use in other games such as tennis. This patent shows a rather large manual device having a keyboard designed to enter the scores for different players and having means for entering the types of shots hit by the players during the course of the match, i.e. whether a golf shot was long or short, hooked, straight or sliced, topped, etc. However, although this device would be useful to a player participating in a golf match at a fairly leisurely pace, it would be useless in providing advice to a player wearing the device during a spirited racquetball or tennis match, since in the Blood device there is only one readout which must be switched around to cause it to display the different information retained in the device's memories. Moreover, since the Blood device is electronically very complex and costly to manufacture, it would require a relatively high sales price.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,097,855 to Salvo, and 4,237,372 to Zevgolis et al, show tennis score keeping devices having multiple readouts, but these readouts are not associated with various types of shots used by the players in making or losing points. The readouts show only total scores for games, sets and matches. The golf scoring U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,142,236 to Martz, and 4,367,526 to McGeary, also show multiple readouts, but not in conjunction with analysis of different types of shots made by the individual players.
A cribbage scoring device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,216 to Rintoul shows score keeping for two players, with readouts for each and means to enter a score in the correct player's readout, but it shows no analysis of performance.
What is needed is a device which will show with statistical and categorical certainty an analysis of the way that points were scored by both the player himself and his opponent, so as to permit the user of the device to know with objective certainty the types of shots used by both players and the degrees of success with which such shots were made, whereby to avoid reliance on ones own subjective memory to analyze in detail how the match was won or lost.